The News Journal

Another US contractor was also injured in the UAV attack, the Pentagon said, adding that the US intelligence community "assess the UAV to be of Iranian origin." Representational image of Fire and smoke rises following airstrike.  WASHINGTON: The US military said it carried out precision airstrikes in eastern Syria on Thursday in response to a drone attack that killed one American contractor and injured five US service personnel. A Department of Defense statement said the US contractor had been killed and the others wounded "after a one-way unmanned aerial vehicle struck a maintenance facility on a Coalition base near Hasakah in northeast Syria." Another US contractor was also injured in the UAV attack, the Pentagon said, adding that the US intelligence community "assess the UAV to be of Iranian origin." Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that at the direction of President Joe Biden, he had authorized "precision airstrikes tonight in eastern Syria ...

Outside the Maricopa County Recorder’s office in downtown Phoenix, amid a hum of construction, Don Newton searched for a location where he could drop off his ballot for the midterm elections. The 82-year-old said he doesn’t trust the ballot boxes the county has set up to help facilitate early voting — and he’s not alone. “There’s a movie out there called 2000 Mules with all sorts of video of the stolen election, with the ballot boxes out there in the sticks with no lights on them or anything,” he said. The film Mr Newton cited has been widely debunked. But that hasn’t stopped it from sewing an alarming degree of mistrust in the electoral process among a wide swath of Americans. In Arizona, it has inspired far right groups to send people — sometimes armed and wearing body armour — to monitor ballot boxes. Those armed poll watchers were affiliated with a group calling itself Clean Elections USA. Led by an evangelical Christian pastor from Oklahoma, Clean Elections USA, has advocated for ...

South Korea and the United States fired eight ballistic missiles on Monday in response to North Korean weapons tests the previous day, Seoul’s military said. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the allies launched the ground-to-ground Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missile at targets in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, in the early morning. The 10-minute volley comes a day after North Korea launched eight short-range ballistic missiles following a South Korea-US joint military exercise involving a US aircraft carrier. “Our military strongly condemns the North’s series of ballistic missile provocations and sternly urges it to immediately stop acts that raise military tensions on the peninsula,” it added. Read More : https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2022/06/06/S-Korea-and-US-fire-ballistic-missiles-in-response-to-N-Korea-tests

Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, described the challenges facing the US economy as akin to a “hurricane” down the road and urged the Federal Reserve to take forceful measures to avoid tipping the world’s biggest economy into a recession. Mr Dimon’s comments come a day after US President Joe Biden met Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to discuss inflation, which is hovering at 40-year highs. “It is a hurricane" and the current situation is unprecedented, Mr Dimon told a banking conference. Read More : https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/economy/2022/06/02/jp-morgans-jamie-dimon-warns-us-is-approaching-economic-hurricane/

The US government lifted restrictions Wednesday on air links to Cuba, one of the measures announced in May by President Joe Biden’s administration in a gesture of conciliation toward the Communist-run island. The decision will allow US airlines to serve other airports in Cuba aside from the capital Havana, a Department of Transportation document said. The re-authorization of certain group trips is also planned, it said. On May 16, the Biden administration announced the upcoming lifting of a slew of sanctions targeting the island, which a US official described at the time as “practical decisions” to help alleviate the humanitarian situation and to “expand economic opportunities” for Cubans. In addition to expanded flights, the United States intends to reinstate a program that was suspended for several years and which had facilitated immigration procedures for members of the same family. Washington had also promised to increase capacity for processing visa applications in Havana. Read Mo...

The US officially announced a new military aid package for Ukraine on Wednesday worth $700 million, including long-range rocket systems. “This new package will arm [Ukraine] with new capabilities and advanced weaponry, including HIMARS with battlefield munitions, to defend their territory from Russian advances,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement. “We will continue to lead the world in providing historic assistance to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom,” he added. Senior Biden administration officials told reporters on Tuesday that Ukraine pledged not to strike inside Russia with the advanced rocket systems from the US. According to the officials, the new rocket systems will be able to hit targets up to 48 miles away. The Pentagon said the latest aid was part of the eleventh drawdown of equipment from US Department of Defense inventories for Ukraine since August 2021. Read More : https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2022/06/01/US-announces-new-military-aid-package-for-Ukra...

Buffalo residents held vigils on Sunday after the deadly shooting at a supermarket by a gunman in a “racist” rampage resulted in 10 dead. The suspected gunman, identified as Payton Gendron, was arraigned late Saturday on a single count of first-degree murder and held without bail, the Erie County district attorney's office said. He pleaded not guilty. “The evidence that we have uncovered so far makes no mistake that this is an absolute racist hate crime,” Buffalo police commissioner, Joseph Gramaglia, said. Mr Gramaglia told reporters the 18-year-old suspect did “reconnaissance” on the predominantly black area surrounding Tops Friendly Market and drove there from his home town of Conklin, more than 200 miles away. United Nations chief Antonio Guterres sharply condemned the shooting deaths of 10 people at a grocery store in New York State, his spokesman said on Sunday. “The Secretary General was appalled by the killing of 10 people in a vile act of racist violent extremism in Buffal...

 One of the oldest luxury brands in the US introduced its first concept for an electric vehicle, the Lincoln Star Concept, on Thursday as Ford Motor's luxury line plays catch-up with premium rivals that have already plugged in. The elongated SUV has large wheels that look like discs and a flat roofline angled down in the rear, ostensibly to improve aerodynamics. Although it’s not a running, driving model, and the company did not release any performance estimates, the Star Concept is the first tangible indicator of the brand’s promise to deliver three fully electric vehicles by 2025 and a fourth by 2026. “In 2017 there were only five premium electric vehicles, today there are 48, and by the end of the decade premium EV sales will triple,” Lincoln president Joy Falotico said. “So now is our moment.” The vehicle comes with a top half largely encased in glass, with a see-through roof that can be darkened manually and 3D-printed front and rear pillars that allow light to flow into the c...

 The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday issued an emergency use authorisation for what it said was the first device that can detect Covid-19 in breath samples. The InspectIR Covid-19 Breathalyzer is about the size of a piece of carry-on luggage, the FDA said, and can be used in doctor’s offices, hospitals and mobile testing sites. The test, which can provide results in less than three minutes, must be used under the supervision of a licensed health care provider. “Today’s authorisation is yet another example of the rapid innovation occurring with diagnostic tests for Covid-19,” said Jeff Shuren, director of the FDA’s Centre for Devices and Radiological Health. The FDA is also supporting the development of more testing capabilities, Mr Shuren said. The agency said the test was validated in a study of 2,409 people, where it correctly identified 91.2 per cent of positive samples and 99.3 per cent of negative samples. It performed similarly in follow-up tests focused on the Omicr...

 After more than a decade, Americans are once again spending more on Swiss watches than anyone. One big reason is that they are thinking differently about them. Call it less bling, more investing. During the pandemic in the US, there has been a boom in the value of collectibles of all sorts — from baseball cards to vintage video games. The reasons are many, but one central catalyst is that people had more time and fewer ways to spend their money. That led to almost anything with scarcity being seen as an investment and finding a robust secondary market. The rising tide lifted Switzerland's high-end watch industry, with prices surging. Watches by Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet are displayed in Geneva. “It has become an investment piece,” said 68-year-old Albert Ganjei, who, as founder of Boston-based European Watch Company, has been selling timepieces for nearly three decades. “It has totally changed.” While some watches are so coveted that they sell for millions at auction — a Pa...